Leaving behind an ‘Echo’ with their music
With quite a few bands making a name for themselves, one particular band in recent times is taking the local musical scene by storm. An outfit of enterprising and ambitious musicians, catering to the more commercial aspect of music and entertainment is Echo.
Aiming to provide memorable musical experiences for followers and especially on special occasions, similar to leaving behind their echo so to speak, members agree that the name is catchy and easy to remember.
Echo comprises 5 young driven musicians. Standing in front with his signature smile and on rhythm is Dilhan Weeresekera, one of the lead vocalists. He’s known to be a master of Sinhala songs and a dream at baila. He started Echo and recruited the second founder of the band, Eshantha Perera, who sits on the drum throne while sharing vocalist duties with Dilhan. Eshantha is also known widely across the music industry, specifically in the rock and metal industry of Sri Lanka as the vocalist of the progressive metal outfit, Constellation. Moving onto the leads, Dylan Rayen brings his wide range of influences to Echo, along with Suchith Fernando, also an experienced musician. The youngest member of Echo dances behind the keyboards, is 20-year old Ashen Ranaweera, who is turning heads with his talent.
Echo came together like most bands by chance, in December 2018. Dilhan, looking for people to perform with for a 31st night party, asked Eshantha to be a part of this endeavour. Eshantha brought Suchith with him and they performed to unexpected success.
Recognizing an incredible vibe with each other and the potential to go far together the group officially came together on the first day of the new year in January last year.
Through 2019, Echo’s musical prowess has evolved to cater to all occasions and to both western and Sinhalese music lovers. Echo’s specialty so far has remained on being groovy, performing lounge tunes to perfection. However, it wasn’t a walk in the park to establish the band throughout the past year. While being accomplished in so many genres of music is an asset, it also requires tremendous effort to deliver on key performances on anything and everything. “It means that we must always be on the ball with our performances, something that’s incredibly time-consuming, and demands a lot of discipline.
It’s easy to become a jack of all trades, master of nothing when you focus on so many different aspects of music, but Echo is not compromising on the genres we have adopted, while also maintaining our performance quality on all of them,” says Eshantha.
Talking about their plans for 2020, they revealed that they had quite a few original pieces in the works. Taking their inspiration from bands like Daddy, Echo hopes to become a hit with the local radio audiences and aims to win their hearts with beautiful originals. “Echo isn’t a band that was born out of the need to make money. It was a band that was built on the foundations of pure friendship and brotherhood. Being in Echo means being surrounded by 4 other incredibly talented musicians and genuinely amazing human beings. It’s the best feeling.”
Members of Echo. Pix by Ishanka Sunimal